Tuesday, March 23, 2010

What's a Suffix Among Friends?

At the end of his introduction of the president, Mr. Biden, who is
well known for ad-libbing to the point of getting him in a little
trouble, turned to Mr. Obama, embraced him and elaborated on the
historic nature of the day.

“Mr. President, this is a big … deal,” he said, adding an adjective between big and deal, that begins with ‘f.’

Why so prude, Grey Lady? There's a Democrat in the White House, just like the last time the paper printed '****'!

In a recorded conversation later on October 6, Ms. Lewinsky said she
wanted two things from the President. The first was contrition: He
needed to ''acknowledge . . . that he helped fuck up my life.''(585)
The second was a job, one that she could obtain without much effort:
''I don't want to have to work for this position . . . I just want it
to be given to me.''(586) Ms. Lewinsky decided to write the President a
note proposing that the two of them ''get together and work on some way
that I can come out of this situation not feeling the way I do.''(587)
After composing the letter, she said: ''I want him to feel a little
guilty, and I hope that this letter did that.''(588)

Maybe they're spooked by the 'ing'? Not always! Even that's okay as long as the word is couched in a Candace Bushnell book excerpt ("All the way out, Peter kept making his
hand into a gun shape, pretending to shoot at the other motorists. He
called everyone "a fucking Polack." Janey tried to pretend that she
thought it was funny.").